Accra, March 16, GNA - The Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, has expressed concern about the low Internet penetration figures in developing countries, at a time when ICT is being used to overcome the handicaps in the development process.

He said statistics indicated that 93while telephone access has reached the 75.4% mark, covering up to 17 million subscribers, the Internet access in Ghana is still low, hovering around 18% covering about 4 million people, most of whom use the mobile Internet". Mr Iddrisu said this in a speech read on his behalf at the Ghana Internet Governance Forum (GIGF) organised at the weekend on the theme: 93Internet Governance for Development; Management of Critical Internet Resources; Emerging Issues; Access and Diversity, Security, Openness and Privacy; and Multi-stakeholder Approach to Internet Governance."

The outcome of the Forum will be reported to the Regional IGF in Abuja in July and eventually to the Global Forum in Nairobi in September this year.

The Minister entreated participants to place the interests of Africa and the developing world uppermost in their considerations. "Our needs are unique," he noted. 93We have the challenge to provide Universal Access and develop infrastructure to reach our communities, which may not be the concern of the more endowed economies." He urged the participants to appreciate the divergent views of all stakeholders that may be expressed at this forum, adding, 93This is essentially the character of the IGF and it must be respected at all times".

Joshua Peprah, Director of Licensing Administration at the National Communication Authority, made a presentation on the government network under construction and said it would initially reach about 1,050 sites around the country covering all 170 Districts, by using different technologies.

All Regional Administrations and Regional Coordinating Councils, District Assemblies, hospitals, schools, public universities and polytechnics, police stations, the military, the Naval and Air force Barracks and any other public office or institutions in the urban areas will be beneficiaries of the wide network. Mr. Peprah charged Internet service providers to be more innovative in the current competitive technology environment to be able to survive.

Presentations were made on the depleting IPv4 and strategy for adoption of IPv6; Security, openness and privacy and the Youth and the Internet Governance.

Chaired by Mr. William Tevie, Director General of NITA, Charles Aboah of the National Security Council and Godfred Ahuma, a Ghanaian telecom consultant, the panellists agreed that although social media has its disadvantages, there were lots of advantages which could be harnessed for development.

The panellists also agreed that the youth could participate actively in Internet Governance through discussions on social network and reach out to government and other stake holders of the IGF. They also agreed on the promotion and growth of multi-stakeholder platform for initial policy discussion and dialogue, as well as more youth engagement in IGF.

The Ghana Internet Governance Forum is an initiative under the West Africa Internet Governance Forum project which aims to promote Internet Governance discussions in West Africa through the multi-stakeholder process.